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In life, there will naturally be headwinds pushing against us and tailwinds helping us move forward.

We can look across the eight realms of wellness to identify what is hindering and what is helping us.

Gratitude allows us to widen our perspective and appreciate what is working and supporting us today.

So often, our attention gravitates toward what is wrong, challenging, or missing. Yet when we focus solely on what is not working, we lose sight of the things that are helping us along.

I find it helpful to think about the headwinds and tailwinds moving through our lives.

Headwinds are the pressures, stressors, and challenges that push against us. They are the things coming at us, demanding our attention, threatening to knock us off course, or making it harder to move in the direction we want to go. Some are temporary, while others are part of circumstances we cannot quickly change. Tailwinds are the forces supporting us from behind and within. They include our strengths, skills, relationships, routines, experiences, and values that help us keep going. They may not remove the headwinds, but they can help us meet them with greater support and perspective.

In Stress Wisely, I explore wellness through eight interconnected dimensions: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, environmental, occupational, financial, and spiritual. Each offers a different lens through which we're able to notice what is hindering us, what is helping us, and where we might find room for growth.

Wellness is an ongoing process of understanding what we need, noticing what supports us, and making adjustments as our circumstances change. Perhaps we are not sleeping as well as we would like, feel........

© Psychology Today